It’s another weekend in the SEC, and another top 10 RPI team rolling onto South Carolina’s schedule at a pivotal time of the Gamecocks’ season.

Coming off back-to-back series losses and the first wave of potential regional hosts announced next week, South Carolina welcomes in RPI No. 3 Mississippi State to Founders Park for a series against two top 20 teams.

“Again, we’ve cornered the market on playing top five teams in the country. That’s what we want to be so we just have to keep battling them,” Mark Kingston said.

“We have to play really well. In this league sometimes you can play really well and still lose the game. We need to play really well and start winning some of these close games against the top teams in the country, cause that’s what we want to be.”

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And the Gamecocks come into the weekend shifting a few things not only in the rotation but in the lineup as well.

They’ve moved Thomas Farr to the Sunday role but have moved some pieces up and down the lineup, most notably Brady Allen from leadoff to No. 3, to try and spark some offensive production.

South Carolina has struggled for offensive consistency in league play, especially the last two weekends and it’s prompted a few changes to how South Carolina prepares in practice this week.

“We have some veteran hitters, so at times we let them go and tell us what they need to be comfortable,” Kingston said. “Then there are times for coaches to step in and say we need to monitor this and force some things that have to happen in practice. We’ve done a little bit more of that this week.”

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The Gamecocks (27-15, 11-10 SEC) are slashing .221/.308/.387 in league play and have gone back to reinforcing a line-drive heavy and a scrappy two-strike approach.

“Our approach offensively is to always hit line drives, battle with two strikes. That’s the foundation of any good offense. You have a bunch of guys who can hit line drives and, if they’re strong, line drives can turn into home runs,” Kingston said.

“You need guys to battle with two strikes. Sometimes we’ve done that very well and sometimes we’ve not. So what we’ve done in practice this week is create drills that emphasize and overemphasize that approach more so than we have trying to make sure we’re leaving nothing to chance.”

It’ll be a tough test against a Mississippi State pitching staff similar to South Carolina’s numbers-wise.

From a South Carolina perspective, the Gamecock pitchers will have to navigate a State lineup good at getting on base and led by Tanner Allen, hitting .360.44/.590 and Rowdey Jordan at .309/.417/.537.

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“I know they have some very good hitters, some very good arms. Guys like Rowdy Jordan and Tanner Allen, they’re going to lead the way for them,” Julian Bosnic said. “If we can keep their bats quiet and if our offense can produce some runs I think it’ll be a very good weekend for us.”

Game times: 7 p.m./4 p.m./2 p.m.

TV/Radio: SEC Network Plus/SEC Network Plus/SEC Network (107.5 FM)

Pitching rotations

Friday: RHP Brannon Jordan (4-3, 3.42 ERA) vs. LHP Christian MacLeod (3-3, 3.49 ERA)

Saturday: RHP Will Sanders (6-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. RHP Will Bednar (4-1, 3.14 ERA)

Sunday: RHP Thomas Farr (2-5, 3.67 ERA) vs. RHP Jackson Fristoe (3-3, 4.97 ERA)